A letter from Argentina

By Florencia Bonin

Page Number(s):

18-19

The Irish landscapes
weren’t the only
thing that the
Argentinian group
discovered during
their trip to Ireland.
A mysterious word
appeared several
times,in the
program and from
the organisers:
‘Comhaltas’.

In Gaelic it means ‘association,
brotherhood, group’. But what
kind of group? That was what
Tommy and the rest asked
themselves; ‘for the majority of
the group, the Comhaltas was a
great surprise. Even it was in
the program that we’d received,
we didn’t know too much about
it. JJ told us this day (on our
trip to Loughrea) that what was
going to happen that night was
very important…’

And nothing more important,
specially for the musicians,
than discover the existence of
an organisation – whose
complete name is Comhaltas
Ceoltóirí Éireann, which means,
association of Irish musicians
dedicated exclusively to
preservation and promotion of
Irish Traditional Music and
culture. It involves diverse
persons, bands and agrupations
all around the world, who
organize ‘branches’ of the
Central headquarters in Dublin.
So, ‘it was in a conversation
between JJ with Comhaltas
people when the idea of inviting
us to be part of this
organisation, building the first
‘branch’ in Argentina and in
South America. appeared. Only
in the next days we began to
realize the opportunity that this
meant,’ on behave that
Comhaltas not only organise
traditional music festivals, but
also works as an archive, helps
to make contacts between
musicians and has a lot of
records and books edited.

Nowadays, back in Buenos
Aires, Tommy Nelson, who was
elected as the first ‘Chairman’
of Buenos Aires Comhaltas
branch, and the rest of the
group, had been dedicated to
announce the news to the Irish-
Argentine Community, not only
through ‘The Southern Cross’,
but also through letters to the
different associations and
meetings with people related
with the Irish music and dances
that couldn’t be part of the trip.
As well, members of the group
had begun to interchange ideas,
plans and projects to join
efforts in the conservation and
spreading of the Irish music
and culture in the country.

‘Once we have completed the
information process and some
meetings to interchange ideas
and search for common points
of view, we’ll call for an
‘inaugural assembly’ where all
the people interested in being
part of this movement will be
able to participate (and also
those who only want to enjoy
music and dances) There it will
be defined a plan for the year,
and afterwards it will be
adjusted ongoing.’

The opportunity to belong to an
organisation like Comhaltas
open a wide field of possibilities
to all the musicians and
dancers, as other people
interested, not only linked with
Ireland but also with the rest of
the world, according to the
existence of Comhaltas
branches in places as different
as Japan, Australia and
Luxemburg. Every road has his
first step, and the Comhaltas
branch in Buenos Aires is just
beginning their path to
establish like a member of an
international community; as
Tommy summarises; ‘I think
that the most important thing is
that everyone interested in Irish
culture’s preservation and
promotion, move closer to us
and participate with their
experience and ideas. The rest
will be built together, between
them and us.’